Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Oven Roasted French Fries

I love to make these French fries in the oven because they are quick, easy, and they taste delicious. The other nice thing about this recipe is that they are a lot healthier than most french fries you buy. They are made from baking (not frying) real potatoes and I keep the skins on because the skins have lots of fiber and vitamins that are healthy for you. I like to use a slicer to cut up the potatoes because it goes really fast, but you can cut them by hand if you'd like. I've seen (and tried) various recipes for baked french fries and I always come back to this recipe from my Mom. Some recipes I've seen say to soak the fries first and then dry them before baking. I've tried them that way and it does make the fries a bit crunchier, but the extra steps (and extra time) really doesn't add very much to the recipe and really not worth it in my opinion. If you're looking to go even healthier you can substitute olive oil in this recipe for the butter, but I prefer them with the buttery flavor. Enjoy!

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450 F. Wash potatoes well. Leaving the skins on, cut the potatoes into french fry pieces. I use a slicer for this because it's fast, but you can do it by hand. Make sure that the pieces are an even thickness because they cook best that way. Place the fries on two large greased cookie sheets and spread around until they are close to being in a single layer. Drizzle fries with melted butter and toss until evenly coated. Sprinkle with salt, as desired. Place fries in oven (using multiple racks is fine). Bake for a total of 30-40 minutes (depending on how crispy you like them). Every 10 minutes, pull the fries out and turn them so that they cook evenly and don't stick to the pan. Rotate the pans top and bottom each time if your oven doesn't cook evenly like mine. Fries are done when they are tender and slightly crispy.